Pizzagate Peddler: If You Want To Abolish ICE, You’re Okay With Sexual Assault Of Kids (TWEETS)

In the wake of Donald Trump’s decision to separate migrant families from their children, calls have mounted to break up the agency primarily responsible for carrying it out, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In response, Trump and his acolytes inside and outside the White House have mounted an all-out assault on those calling for ICE’s shutdown.

As is typical for anything mounted by Trump, this campaign has been replete with dog whistles. To hear the defenders of this policy talk, those who want ICE shut down or broken up are against law and order, and want to give carte blanche to MS-13 and other thugs to flow into the country. Simply put, this borders on racist language.

But there’s a talking point floating around the darker reaches of deplorable Twitter that may be worse than that. How do you get worse than racially-tinged dog whistling? Quite easily, actually–by suggesting that those who want ICE shut down may be child molesters.

That line was started by Liz Crokin, a far-right blogger and pseudo-journalist who is one of the loudest promoters of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. She spends most of her time trolling for “evidence” of a massive sex trafficking ring that supposedly involves a who’s-who of Democrats and celebrities.

Recently, she’s been an aggressive promoter of a derivative of Pizzagate called “The Storm,” which claims a top adviser to Trump known as “QAnon” or “Q” is dribbling out information on 4chan about a planned crackdown on pedophiles. To hear Crokin talk, if you oppose Trump, you’re part and parcel of this pedophile ring–and your day is coming.

So it should come as no surprise that Crokin saw fit to tar those who want ICE shut down as being perfectly okay with the sexual assault of innocent children–or worse.

If you want to abolish ICE, there’s a good chance you’re a child rapist.

Really, Liz? So if we want to break up an agency that carries out this callous, cruel, and borderline racist policy, we’re closet child rapists? That must settle it, then.

Apparently Crokin doesn’t know–or doesn’t want you to know–that among those who want to break up ICE are some of the very people who work every day to stamp out sexual assault and its related crimes. For those who don’t know, ICE is divided into two divisions. Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the best-known division, is responsible for rounding up illegal immigrants. The other division, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), fights a number of crimes that cross international lines–including human trafficking and child exploitation.

In June, 19 HSI special agents in charge asked Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to break up ICE and make HSI a separate agency. They claimed that ICE’s increased emphasis on deportations is hampering their ability to fight “transnational crimes”–including, and it cannot be emphasized enough, human trafficking and child exploitation. For some time, there has been wide sentiment that ERO and HSI are two separate agencies with two different missions, and would be better served by being separate agencies. This dispute only exacerbated it.

So let’s review. Crokin thinks that if you want to shut down ICE, you’re probably a child molester. And yet, some of the very people who want ICE broken up are among those who are fighting child exploitation. Is Crokin willing to tell these agents to their faces that they’re child molesters? Perhaps we should ask her–politely, of course. Tell Crokin what you think of her idiocy on Facebook and on Twitter.

Darrell is a graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello, or donate on Patreon.